


thicker than water

by hariboo



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-26
Updated: 2013-02-26
Packaged: 2017-12-03 16:16:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/700180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hariboo/pseuds/hariboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We're all each other has left," she said once.</p>
            </blockquote>





	thicker than water

**Author's Note:**

> for the fix it ficathon.

Bonnie tells them to leave, her mouth firm but smiling. There's not argument in her eyes. She's tried, so is Elena. Elena doesn't fault her for the ask. Part of Elena wants to leave as well, leave this place burnt to ashes in her memory.

They don't. Not right away anyway. 

Elena pleads, not begs, she won't ever do that, but pulls Bonnie aside, her grip gentle but strong and tries not to feel hurt when Bonnie flinches. Bonnie's gotten better at vampires - touching them, using them, killing them - but she told Elena after Caroline that she always feels that shiver of _cold, death, unnatural_. Before Bonnie used to pretend that Elena's touch didn't bite at her like a cold fire. Before Bonnie used to try and protect Elena. A lot has changed. They have different responsibilities now.

Elena pleads. 

"For Jeremy, Bonnie, please. Let him just finish school. Let him just have this one normal thing."

Bonnie sighs; she still loves Jeremy, but she loves the town more. Once she loved Elena most of all. 

"Fine," Bonnie bites out, soft and edged. She wrenches her arm from Elena's grip. "For Jeremy."

"Thank you," Elena smiles. It's an old smile, one she remembers using freely but doesn't feel hers anymore. Bonnie doesn't smile back. Bonnie doesn't smile at Elena much anymore. 

 

-

 

Jeremy sits in the Salvatore's living room. 

Stefan and Damon are gone. Elena mourns them, she did love them after all; their rings are the only thing she has left of them. Almost identical, save minor imperfections. She doesn't romanticism their remainders. She keeps them in her jewellery box with Rebekah's necklace. She never takes them out.

They've live here for a while. The house was still under Elena's name and she signed it over to Jeremy. Hardly anybody ever comes by anymore. (When Bonnie told them all to leave Caroline had, Tyler already in the wind. Elena doesn't know if Caroline went after him or found her own way. Matt's the only allowed to stay. Matt, Elena and Jeremy. They share the house. Her old one burned down. She set the match, Jeremy held her hand. Everything had burned.)

"What are we going to do with that house?" He graduates in a week. They have a week left in town. None of them want to prolong their lives here. 

Elena swirls her glass, whisky and vervain burn her throat. 

"Sign it over to Matt, I guess."

The tattoos on Jeremy's arm twist and cut into his skin. Elena hates them, hates what they brought, but she loves Jeremy. Elena loves him most of all. 

"He's not going want to live here after we live." It's true. Matt lives with them because they're pretty much the only family all of them have left now. One that hates and loves each other in equal measure. Matt lives with them because beside Bonnie who doesn't come to the mansion at all anymore, they're they only people he has left. 

She shrugs. She doesn't care. "Then we'll keep it. Donate to the town. Bonnie will know what to do."

Jeremy sighs, he flips the stake in the air. Elena wonders how much self control it's taking for him not to throw it at her heart. She could probably catch it, but still, it's a thought. 

"Yeah, I guess," he says, "hey, do you think she'll let me keep the spell?" His tone is so hopeful and Elena wants to sobs. He's suddenly Jer, fourteen and stupid and smoking too much pot, drawing in his notebooks and wishing everything would go back to normal. If there was one wish Elena could grant… but there's not point in dwelling on that anymore. 

The spell hides the tattoos from most people. No supernaturals, and well, not Matt, but everyone else sees: Jeremy Gilbert, tall and handsome and takes care of his sister. Elena always sees the marks people left on him. She hates them. She still remembers Kol and Klaus and how they saw him as nothing but a tool. She never wanted that for Jeremy. 

She tries to smile, "I hope so, Jer."

He nods. "I'm going for a run."

She nods back. That means he's been around her a little too long. Needs to burn of the energy, the push to kill. That's fine, she's could use some fresh air herself. She's not allowed to feed in town anymore, Bonnie's rule, but she can be in the next town over in a few minutes. She never did get a taste for animal blood and Meredith Fell doesn't come with her blood supply for the month until tomorrow.

She always tries to make herself faster when moving over the bridge.

 

-

 

Jeremy doesn't go to his graduation. He and Matt drink. Bonnie and Elena sit and try to remember who they used to be.

 

-

 

The car is dirty from where the dust has kicked up. They don't really do a great job at washing it. The blue is dingy.

It's Damon's old one. They gave Stefan's roadster to Matt. He had always liked; he's moved out of the house, moved in with Bonnie. Her went back to travelling. Abby left.

Across from her Jeremy's shoulders are tight and she can see how his forearm clenches every few seconds. The tattoo pulses like river of black ink, alive. Bonnie cut the spell. Elena had hated her a little in that moment. Jeremy wears a lot of long sleeves now.

They've been in the car together too long.

"We'll met up with Tyler soon enough and you two can go vampire hunting or something."

Tyler's been busy, tracking, teaching. One of the few hybrids left. After the cure had burned up they had needed to find another way. Elena hadn't know what would happen to any of them when she sucked Klaus dry, the spell weaving his blood, his line, into her, but Tyler had stood in front of her every second of it. After all, he was Klaus', too, albeit in a very different way. In the end they had both stood up. 

Jeremy laughs, "You coming with?"

She shakes her head, "I dunno, we'll see." She could use the distraction; she needs to keep up her with her reflexes considering how quickly Jeremy's develop.

"It would be cool. We could be like hunter team." 

"Who better how to hunt a vampire than a vampire?"

"Yeah, something like that." 

Elena grins, "You act like I've been a vampire for ages."

"Eh, schematics," he shrugs, "you kick a lot of ass."

"Aww, thanks, Jer." Reaching across, she punches his shoulder. Soft, but not as soft as she would with a regular human. The thought burns at her like vervain; worse. Jeremy flinches. Sticks his tongue out. She laughs and then laughs harder when he tugs on her pony tail. 

For a second it feels like they're…

Before. 

"Brat."

"Loser."

"Punk."

"Airhead."

"Stoner!"

"Cheerleader!"

 

-

 

Elena's face is covered with blood as is most of her shirt. The blood is not hers.

Jeremy stands in front of her, breathing heavily, arm bleeding. It's not his either. 

"Shit, you okay?" He tucks back his hunting knife into his pants, and whips of his plaid shirt, handing it to her. The white of his undershirt is stark against his tattoos and skin.

Elena licks her lips. Then licks it again, sucking the blood around it clean off. She uses the shirt to wipes the rest of it off. 

"Yeah, you?" She nods towards his arm, "Do you want me—"

He shakes his head. "Nah, it'll be close up soon." 

They look at the thing on the ground between them. It's not a vampire, it's not a wolf, not a hybrid, it's something they've never seen. Their eyes snap back at each other at the same time.

"What the fuck is that?"

Jeremy takes out his phone and takes a picture. "I don't know?" He looks at Elena, chin tilting, and a one shoulder shrug. "I'm texting it to Tyler, but like, ask Elijah?"

Elena nods, "Ask Elijah."

"You know," he says, already bending down to grab at the things legs or it arms? Anyway Elena goes for the other limbs. They heave and lift together. "When I said we could be a hunter team I was joking."

Grinning, she shrugs, "Yeah, but really, we were getting pretty bored, weren't we?"

He grins back, "I was ready to kill you out of fucking boredom." It's probably true, but she'd given him a fight now. The hunter instinct gets stronger in him every year he lives longer and Elena knows one day he might not be able to fight it anymore. She's just grateful it's not today. That today the comment is mostly a joke.

"You wish!"

"I could totally take you!"

 

-

 

After the blood, after the spells, after the death and rebirth and the burning, Elena stands. And she keeps standing even when she wants to crumble.

"We're all each other has left," she said once. 

It was the truth. 

It's the only truth she holds onto. Everything else has burnt in ash. She keeps standing.


End file.
